Callas in Dallas

The week saw and happily survived the meeting of two overwhelming and unpredictable forces: the State of Texas and Soprano Maria Meneghini Callas. For a while it looked as if the encounter might end in a total disaster, but it turned out a triumph for both Callas and Dallas.

Able Chicago Impresario Lawrence V. Kelly, who undertook the staggering job of installing an opera company deep in the heart of Texas, had managed to snag Maria Callas to kick off his new Dallas Civic Opera Company with a grand inaugural concert. But earlier in the season the diva dived off the deep end and failed to appear with the San Francisco Opera Company, pleading ill-health (TIME, Sept. 30). Rumors said that her voice had cracked. Some people in Dallas thought she could not sing, others that she would not. Texans by the droves failed to buy tickets.

Through the Roof. The huge State Fair Music Hall (capacity: 4,100) was almost a quarter empty when La Callas appeared, shimmering and glowing in a Venetian-gold gown with diamonds glittering at her ears. Behind her was a black-bordered set with a sky-blue backdrop, creating the effect of an immense shadow box. Callas had committed herself to a murderously difficult concert of eight operatic arias. All week she had kept trying to cut the number down to three, but Impresario Kelly held firm, and eight it was. She opened with a Mozart aria from The Abduction from the Seraglio, which she did in harsh, mediocre style. With two arias from Bellini's I Puritani, Callas hit her stride, rippling down her famed arpeggios, her tone pure and vibrant.

At the end, Callas appeared in a black lace sheath and a blazing diamond necklace. She sang the final aria from Donizetti's Anna Bolena, in which the wronged queen, about to be beheaded, forgives all her enemies. At the last exultant phrase ("Only my blood is lacking to finish the crime, and this will be shed!"), Callas took a single step forward--so dramatic that people all but jumped. She raised a commanding hand over her head, then threw her arms wide and sent that last full note straight up through the roof.

On the Map. There was a lot to cheer about the next night, too. when the new Dallas opera staged L'ltallana in Algeri, a much-neglected Rossini romp. The house was half empty--two of the city's most popular debutantes were giving a dance that night. Despite major obstacles--including a Texas chorus that had a lot of trouble learning to sing in Italian--the production turned out to be topnotch, with bright sets, smooth and funny staging. The cast, mostly imported and mostly unknown in the U.S. (except for brilliant Mezzo-Soprano Giulietta Simionato). had been so ably picked by Impresario Kelly that the total effect surpassed the Met's memorable Don Pasquale, something of a standard for opera buffa. Said one opera veteran: "As of today, Dallas is on the map as an opera town along with New York, San Francisco and Chicago."

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